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The American Aisle

Those of you who know me well, will remember my obsessive fascination with the broken aisle in supermarkets.

I just can’t kick the habit.

Tonight’s browse at Tesco’s broken yielded an absolute treasure trove. I could hardly get to it on first pass – stronger, taller people kept elbowing me out the way. On second pass, I found wholemeal bread, salmon (boneless!), fresh shrimp/prawn (uncooked!), and even trout en croute (wahoo!).

So that was great. But then Tesco upped the ante.

Introducing, for the first time ever…

THE AMERICAN AISLE!

It was right next to the Irish Aisle, the Indian Aisle, the Thai Aisle, the Caribbean Aisle, the Polish Aisle and the Mexican Aisle. All the ethnicities that really matter to Britons, I guess. Or at least their palates.

I laughed and laughed at the strange selection of American things they decided were most important to import…

I’ve never even HEARD of Baconnaise or Bacon Pop! For the record I think that Brits go far more ga-ga for bacon than Americans do. Never heard of Goober either.

So, the big question is: if you were living in a far off land, what would YOU want to see in your American aisle?

Brownie mix was a big deal in Saudi in the early 80’s. It only came in about every 4-6 months causing droves of women (who had to be driven as they were not allowed drive themselves) converged on the local Safeway to clean out the shelves in a matter of a day or two. I’d have to say that neither the Baconnaise or Bacon Pop would have made me homesick any more than the aisle long supply of Bugles (in the cereal aisle, no less) did in our Riyadh days. It’s good to see, however, that there is still “always room for Jello”.